The best selling games on every console
Table of Contents
Table of Contents The best selling Atari 2600 game: Pac-Man – 8 million The best selling NES game: Super Mario Bros. – 40 million* The best selling Sega Genesis game: Sonic the Hedgehog – 15 million* The best selling Game Boy game: Pokémon Red & Blue – 31 million The best selling SNES game: Super Mario World – 20.6 million* The best selling PS1 game: Gran Turismo – 10.85 million The best selling N64 game: Super Mario 64 – 11.91 million* The best selling Dreamcast game: Sonic Adventure – 2.5 million The best selling GBA game: Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire – 16.22 million The best selling PS2 game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – 17.33 The best selling Xbox game: Halo 2 – 8.46 million The best selling GameCube game: Super Smash Bros. Melee – 7.41 million The best selling DS game: New Super Mario Bros. – 30.80 million The best selling Xbox 360 game: Kinect Adventures! – 24 million The best selling PS3 game: GTA 5 – 29.52 million The best selling Wii game: Wii Sports – 82.90 million* The best selling Wii U game: Mario Kart 8 – 8.46 million* The best selling PS4 game: Marvel's Spider-Man – 22.68 million The best selling Xbox One game: PUBG: Battlegrounds – 9 million The best selling Switch game: Mario Kart 8: Deluxe – 68.29 million The best selling Xbox Series X/S game: ???? The best selling PS5 game: Marvel's Spider-Man 2: 11 million
Looking back at the entire video game console timeline lets us get a clear picture of how the industry has evolved. It is fun to rank the best consoles of all time and look at things like the best Nintendo launch games to remember what we were playing when we first got our hands on those new systems. Those kinds of subjective lists are fun, but there are some equally interesting objective things to explore as well. Game sales don't necessarily represent the best games of all time, but do show what was most popular at the time for one reason or another. There's typically a disconnect between what sells the best and what is the highest rated, which is fun to see. This isn't the kind of thing most people know off the top of their head, so we dug through all the financial reports for as far back as we could to find the best selling games on every video game console.
Note: We are only covering the major home and handheld consoles and leaving out the more niche systems that few people owned or remember. We are also only able to account for officially released sales data. It is possible some of these numbers have changed or are in the wrong order, but as of 2025, it is as up-to-date as possible based on the latest official data.
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The best selling Atari 2600 game: Pac-Man – 8 million
The early consoles were mainly a way to play the best arcade games at home, so it makes sense that Pac-Man would be the top seller for the Atari 2600. What is a little surprising, though, is just how many copies this game sold in the end. Despite how niche video games were in the early 80s, Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 sold over 8 million copies. Space Invaders comes in at a distant second place with just over 6 million with Donkey Kong rounding out the top three with a little over 4 million.
The best selling NES game: Super Mario Bros. – 40 million*
We have to put a small asterisk on this entry because, despite being one of the best Mario games and certainly would've sold millions on its own, Super Mario Bros. was a pack-in game with the NES. That game was probably why most people bought the console, but we will never know for sure how many copies the game would have sold if it hadn't been included with the system. However, bundle or not, the sales figure of over 40 million copies is nothing to sneeze at. Even Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. 3, which were also included in bundles, only sold 28 million and 18 million copies, respectively. If you don't count bundles, the top selling NES game would then fall to Tetris with 8 million copies sold.
The best selling Sega Genesis game: Sonic the Hedgehog – 15 million*
Just like Nintendo's main mascot topped the charts for the NES, Sega's own Sonic was easily the best selling Genesis game with 15 million sales. However, we have to put the same asterisk on Sonic as we did with Mario because it, too, was bundled with the console. If we look at second place, it is none other than Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with around 7.5 million copies. These are great numbers, but really goes to show just how dominant Nintendo was at the time over Sega.
The best selling Game Boy game: Pokémon Red & Blue – 31 million
What else could be the best selling Game Boy game than the franchise that took over the world and hasn't let go? The monster-catching games rocketed the franchise into the stratosphere and gave the handheld a second life almost 10 years after it first game out. Some might think it is a little unfair to bundle the sale of both games together, but that's how Nintendo has always done it. Besides, the second best selling game is Tetris, but that was a pack-in game, and third place is Pokémon Gold and Silver with 23.7 million, so you have to go pretty far down the list to not have any kind of asterisk.
The best selling SNES game: Super Mario World – 20.6 million*
Act surprised, but another Mario game is at the top of the list. Again, we have to put a disclaimer on this game's huge sales milestone for being part of a bundle with the console. Just like with the NES, though, Super Mario World is one of the best SNES games made and would likely have sold about as well regardless. If you want to find the next best selling game that isn't a bundle, we have to go all the way to ninth place, where we get Street Fighter II Turbo at 4.1 million copies sold.
The best selling PS1 game: Gran Turismo – 10.85 million
This was a very close race between first, second, and third place, but the first entry in Sony's own racing game franchise squeaks out the win at 10.85 million copies. Besides just being a great game, Gran Turismo was, and still is, always a graphical showpiece for Sony consoles that draws a huge crowd just to show off what the system can do. Nipping at its heels in second place is Final Fantasy 7 at 10.02 million, followed by Gran Turismo 2 at 9.37 million.
The best selling N64 game: Super Mario 64 – 11.91 million*
Stop us if you've heard this one before, but a Mario game was the best selling game on a Nintendo system. Shocking, we know, but this is yet again a pack-in situation. In fact, first through fourth place all have that asterisk attached, including Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Fifth place, however, is Super Smash Bros. with no asterisk at a respectable 5.55 million. While there were tons of great N64 games, this console didn't sell as well as Nintendo's others so these are still great numbers considering the install base.
The best selling Dreamcast game: Sonic Adventure – 2.5 million
It almost isn't worth it to include the Dreamcast on this list, but we wanted to acknowledge its loyal fans and that it did have some great games. Sadly, not even Sonic could save this system and its premier 3D adventure only managed to sell 2.5 million copies. Soulcalibur was second best with >1.3 million, and Shenmue took third with 1.2 million.
The best selling GBA game: Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire – 16.22 million
Just like Mario will keep showing up at the top of home console sales, Pokémon remains the king of the handheld market. Ruby and Sapphire make perfect sense, but second place belongs to Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of the first generation games with 12 million copies sold.
The best selling PS2 game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – 17.33
It's a little surprising how few copies the best PS2 games sold considering it itself is the best selling console. Don't get us wrong, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas selling over 17 million copies isn't chump change, but a little underwhelming when you consider there are around 160 million PS2s out there. Going down the list, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec gets the silver medal with 14.89 million, and GTA: Vice City holds bronze with 14.2 million.
The best selling Xbox game: Halo 2 – 8.46 million
Microsoft's first console attempt went way better than expected, and that was largely due to launching with a Halo game. The sequel, Halo 2, was one of the most heavily marketed games at the time and revolutionized online play, allowing it to put the original Halo in second place at 6 million. The drop off to third place is huge, with Fable selling a still impressive 3 million copies.
The best selling GameCube game: Super Smash Bros. Melee – 7.41 million
Sadly, Nintendo's grip on the console market continued to slip with the GameCube, but Super Smash Bros. Melee played a big part in keeping the system relevant at parties and in competitive scenes. It is also the first system where Mario was shoved to third place, though only technically, since Mario Kart: Double Dash is second with 6.88 million, and then Mario Sunshine comes in with 5.91 million.
The best selling DS game: New Super Mario Bros. – 30.80 million
Meanwhile, the handheld side of things continues to print money and, in a rare twist, sees Mario on top and Pokémon way down at number five. 30.80 million are numbers Nintendo hand't seen since the original Game Boy, followed by Nintendogs next with 23.96 million and Mario Kart DS only just losing out with 23.60 million.
The best selling Xbox 360 game: Kinect Adventures! – 24 million
Be honest, did you see this one coming? You probably would have guessed Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Skyrim, or one of the other common best Xbox 360 games would be the best seller, but no, 24 million people purchased Kinect Adventures! That sounds even crazier when you see that it sold more than GTA V at 22.95 million and Minecraft at 22 million.
The best selling PS3 game: GTA 5 – 29.52 million
This probably looks more like what you were expecting. GTA 5 absolutely crushes all other PS3 games in terms of sales by a huge margin, as one would think. Even Gran Turismo 5 in second place only sold 11.95 million copies, and Uncharted 3 in third at ~9 million. Despite its rough launch, the PS3 did end the generation with a lot of big sellers, but nothing compared to GTA.
The best selling Wii game: Wii Sports – 82.90 million*
Nintendo loves to bundle games with its hardware, and no example is more famous than the Wii and Wii Sports. This pack-in game was the only game a huge number of people ever got for the system, which explains its astronomical sales. Mario Kart Wii, which was also a bundle, is second at 37/38 million, and Wii Sports Resort at third with 33.14 million. The first non-bundled game is fifth place's Wii Play at 28.02 million, which still blows away most other consoles' best sellers.
The best selling Wii U game: Mario Kart 8 – 8.46 million*
This would be a tough one to talk about if Nintendo didn't manage one of the greatest turnarounds in video game history right after. 8.46 million copies for a Mario Kart game is abysmal, and this was also a bundle game. In fact, the top nine Wii U games were all part of a bundle at one time or another. The first game you can say sold the most without an asterisk is Mario Party 10 at just 2.27 million copies. Of course, many of these games would end up selling way better when ported to a future system.
The best selling PS4 game: Marvel's Spider-Man – 22.68 million
This is the generation PlayStation really blasted ahead of the competition. Marvel's Spider-Man was the perfect storm of a massive IP and a perfect development team to hit 22.68 million sales, but it wasn't a complete blowout. God of War was almost the winner with 21.02 million sales, and GTA 5 somehow managed to sell almost as many copies on the PS4 as PS3 with 20 million.
The best selling Xbox One game: PUBG: Battlegrounds – 9 million
We don't need to remind anyone how dismal the Xbox One generation was, but seeing PUBG: Battlegrounds as the top seller says it all. No offense to that game, but it selling more than Black Ops III at 7.37 million copies and COD: WWII at 6.23 million shows how small the audience was on this system.
The best selling Switch game: Mario Kart 8: Deluxe – 68.29 million
If you didn't think the platform could make a big difference, here's your proof. Despite being an upgraded port of the Wii U game, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe sold more copies on the Switch than the total number of Wii U consoles. And these numbers don't get any less crazy when you look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons selling 47.82 million, or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate selling 36.81 million. In fact, you have to go to the 22 best selling game on the Switch before sales drop below 10 million.
The best selling Xbox Series X/S game: ????
Sadly, there is no official data available for what the best selling Xbox Series X/S game is. Microsoft has stopped reporting a lot of its sales data for hardware and software units in favor of players and engagement, making it impossible to know for sure how many copies of games have actually sold.
The best selling PS5 game: Marvel's Spider-Man 2: 11 million
We're still in the midst of the PS5 generation, so these numbers are likely to shift, but there's no doubt that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is the clear game to beat with 11 million copies. Second place is a surprise hit: Black Myth: Wukong selling 5 million copies, and then an old familiar franchise taking third place in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, selling 3.97 million copies to date. We'll keep an eye on this list as things evolve and more sales data comes out.
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